The International Space Station is more than Tang or Velcro, it has to do with many milestones in space research:

DIGITAL IMAGING BREAST BIOPSY SYSTEM— A non-surgical system developed with Space Telescope Technology that greatly reduces the time, cost, pain, and other effects associated with traditional surgical biopsies.

BREAST CANCER DETECTION—A solar cell sensor that determines exactly when x-ray film has been exposed to optimum density; it reduces exposure to radiation and doubles the number of patient exams per machine.

LASER ANGIOPLASTY—A "cool" type of laser, called an excimer laser, which offers precise non-surgical cleanings of clogged arteries and fewer complications than in balloon angioplasty.

HUMAN TISSUE STIMULATOR—A device employing NASA satellite technology that is implanted in the body to help control chronic pain and involuntary motion disorders through electrical stimulation of targeted nerve centers or particular areas of the brain.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

On December 4, 2014, Orion will launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex Flight Test on the Orion Flight Test: a two-orbit, four-hour flight that will test many of the systems most critical to safety.

The Orion Flight Test will evaluate launch and high speed re-entry systems such as avionics, attitude control, parachutes and the heat shield. In the future, Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. More powerful than any rocket ever built, SLS will be capable of sending humans to deep space destinations such as an asteroid and eventually Mars. Exploration Mission-1 will be the first mission to integrate Orion and the Space Launch System.

The Orion space capsule — NASA's first capsule built for a trip to Mars — made a bull's-eye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 11:29 a.m. EST (1629 GMT) after a 4.5 hour uncrewed test flight. Orion's key systems were put to the test during the flight, which launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket, from a pad here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT).